We started our preschool unit with letter R and I divided the activities into two: (1) phonological awareness and (2) pre-writing. The pre-reading activities is scheduled on Mondays and pre-writing on Tuesdays. Vito does no more than 20 minutes of “school” per day. The rest of the activities, Vito considers it as “game” or “play”. During “school” time, I would quit the activities once I see that he’s bored or not interested. My experience has taught me that it’s not about the quantity of activities that I give to my kids that matter. In fact, they get tired so easily and bored when I do that. Especially with Vito, I learned that I should do things slowly with him, and that I should respect and follow his own timeline of learning. Mavi was different, he absorbs anything… he’s always interested, Vito is very choosy.
Going back, this week we’re starting with the letter R. Vito can name the letters of the alphabet if he’s in the mood so I decided that I should be giving him pre-reading activities so he won’t get bored. Below are some of the activities this week for pre-reading and pre-writing.
Phonological Awareness
We read books. That’s at least 3 books in a day. For this week we are reading the following:
These are his picks. He would choose these books among the others that’s on the basket. Once we’re done with these, I will keep them on a separate basket so he’ll pick new sets. I made sure that I point out to the letters and ask him if he can make their sounds, rather than naming the letter. I pick letters randomly.
Letter sounds through objects. These are the miniatures that we have for letter R. The objects we are focusing on: rug, rock, rooster, rainbow and rope. This card is from our Autumn themed Early Literacy Pack. We would name each of the object, and as we do, I would emphasize on the beginning letter sound.
To show the difference between letter sounds, we sorted out objects starting with letters A and R. I picked the objects from the box, and we name it emphasizing the beginning letter sound. I would then ask him in what felt mat does it belong. He enjoyed this activity, I guess because he’s learning a lot by naming the objects. He actually sees this as a game, not a phonics lesson.
As an extension, I made him these letter sound cards so we can use it wherever we go. The cards are in a binder ring which we carry around the house, or outdoors when we pick up and wait for Mavi. I would also bring these homemade cards in the bedroom so we can read a few before he naps.
He loves matching! We were talking about the pictures and hurriedly took out the objects we were using and position them this way and said “see, it’s a match!”.
Pre-writing and Letter Recognition
I am integrating sensorial and practical life skills (fine motor skills) in our pre-writing activities. This is the part where Vito really gets to play because we use some of his favourite materials like playdough, rice, paints etc.
This is a do-a-dot printable I got from Etsy. I find it cute and will save me a lot of time creating our own, so I bought it for Vito but we didn’t use it for the markers. I printed the material, laminated and made Vito put some stickers on the circles. Pretty much the same fine motor skills that you will benefit with Do a Dot markers except that additional work has to be done, and that’s to peel it off (another fine motor skill)! Look at his reaction after he finished his work. Priceless!
Another activity was tracing lines. This printable is from my September Preschool Unit (Autumn Themed Activities). We are using this amazing Chalk Pens which you can purchase from here. It’s so easy to wipe off and has no smell!
Learning small and big letters. He finally grasped the concept of small and big letters. I cut out these letters and he glued them on a paper. He keeps on saying “big, small, big, small” as he pointed to the letters.
DIY Letter Construction. Okay so back in 2011, I discovered this build a letter template from Tired Need Sleep wherein it’s the poor man’s version of this material. I made the materials again using foam sheets because Vito loves to form letters out of everything (sticks, rocks, garlic sticks LOL etc).
And lastly, pin poking activity for letter R. Printed this out from 1Plus1Plus1Equals1 and instead of using QTips, we used jumbo pins. Supervision is needed here. Instruct your child on how to hold the pin properly and where to place his other hand for support. Make sure that your child is aware that the pin is dangerous and he could get hurt when not properly used.
No, that’s not a smile. That’s a facial expression while exerting effort pushing the pin in the cork LOL.
And that’s about it! Thank you for taking time to read this post. Can’t wait to share our math for this week, stay tuned!
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